The Meadows School of the Arts, formally established in 1969 at SMU in Dallas, has achieved prominence as one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States. Learn more about SMU Meadows and its Mission

Meadows serves the public as a significant cultural center by presenting more than 400 events annually for the Dallas community and surrounding region. Read more about upcoming events and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, "This Week at Meadows".

The Meadows School of the Arts, formally established in 1969 at SMU in Dallas, has achieved prominence as one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States. Learn more about SMU Meadows and its Mission

Meadows serves the public as a significant cultural center by presenting more than 400 events annually for the Dallas community and surrounding region. Read more about upcoming events and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, "This Week at Meadows".

News and Events

In the Spotlight: Roza Essaw

Communications major uses voice in order to make others heard

Roza Essaw knows what it’s like to be an outsider,
but she’s never let it stop her. To truly understand
the SMU senior, a triple major in communication
studies, human rights and political science, one has
to go back to her arrival in Wylie, Texas, a town
with a population of just over 40,000 located
northeast of Dallas.

Wylie isn’t the type of town where a new girl from
California blows into the local high school and
becomes “someone.” It’s the kind of town where
classmates have known each other since grade
school, where new kids face an uphill battle just
to find a seat in the cafeteria, much less a seat
in student government.

But Essaw wasn’t intimidated; she established
her voice swiftly, giving an early indication of the
inspirational young woman she would become.
The West Coast transplant quickly became freshman
class president, ultimately assuming the role
of leading the entire student body.

Clearly Roza Essaw doesn’t settle for not being
heard. In her time at Meadows, the Hunt Leadership
Scholar has evolved into a globetrotting
advocate for overlooked populations in places like
Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Africa. She has held
key roles in campus organizations such as Student
Senate, the President’s Commission on Alcohol
Prevention and the Business Advisory Council.

Her most pivotal experience – the one that turned
her career path on its ear, pushing her far past her
well-earned comfort zone – was her first chance to
study abroad: in South Africa, as part of a grant from
the Division of Communication Studies. For the first
time she came face to face with human rights issues,
and “the experience blew me away,” she says.

“These people tell you their stories, and they want
you to be a witness for them. I realized it was the
main reason I had become a communications major
at Meadows: to use my voice in order to make
others heard.”

Her mission to give voice to the voiceless took her
on a 2011 Richter International Fellowship to Ethiopia
and, through an SMU Engaged Learning grant, to
Rwanda a year later. The stated purpose of the latter
trip was no less ambitious than “to assess the human
rights situation in post-genocide Rwanda through
on-site interviews and research.” A semester’s stint
in Copenhagen wrapped up her undergraduate studies
abroad, and Essaw is now firmly entrenched back
in Dallas for her last semester – forever changed by
her international experiences.

“The Rwanda trip especially took an emotional toll
on me,” says Essaw. “Every step you take on the
street is somehow impacted by genocide. You get
to the point where you just assume that everyone
you talk to has lost somebody in their lives. But
I finally realized that if these women could be
so courageous, then what am I sitting down and
crying for? Their courage and bravery is what
inspires me daily.”

Essaw has herself become a source of inspiration
for her fellow classmates. Communication Studies
Professor Rita Kirk, who offered Essaw her first
internship through the Maguire Center for Ethics
and Public Responsibility, says Essaw is living the
ethos set forth by Meadows Dean José Bowen:
eschewing comfort zones in pursuit of testing
limits and finding your passion. “One of the things
she signifies to the students is that life is dynamic,
and you shouldn’t have to settle for a future you’re
not entirely happy with,” says Kirk.

Essaw has only a few months left on the Hilltop to
cement her impact; after graduation she hopes
to go on to law school and study international and
human rights law. But she still has a few things left
to accomplish, such as reconnecting with friends
like Essete Workneh, a former roommate and fellow
communications major she has known since their
early student government days in Wylie.

“Roza has inspired a lot of people, myself included,”
says Workneh, who recalls Essaw pushing her
to run for a top position in Student Amnesty International
– a position she successfully won. “She has
a rare kind of confidence, which she is able to instill
into others with her wisdom and her energy.”

Not lost on the young activist is a sense of gratitude
– an obligation even – to the people who made
all of her travels, internships and research projects
possible.

“I feel that my scholarship donors want to give
me something, and I’m therefore compelled to
do more than just go to class and come back,”
says Essaw. “My involvement in these projects is a
way to show that, because people are investing in
my education and my future, I am also investing
myself in other populations to try and help them
in whatever small way I can.”